Rewards and incentives??

[EvilTwins]

I was involved in a discussion at school today about rewards and incentives. We are looking at motivating our students to become a bit more independent in their learning, and were looking at a motivational theory which puts an emphasis on rewards and the "value" of the reward. I am not in a school where value is necessarily put on the learning itself (sad - cultural thing - hard to get over, but we're trying) and am interested in what your DC's school does in terms of rewards/awards/incentives.

We currently have a system whereby a child can earn praise points during lessons for various things, and for good work etc etc. These can accumulate during lessons, and when a child reaches a certain number, then a card is written out which goes onto the school system and then home via the child. Once a certain number of cards have been earned, there are certificiates and various other accolades. Not sure it's working though.

I do not believe the school should go down the money/material goods route (shocked to learn a school in our area is giving I-pads to students who maintain 100% attendance and also achieve top of the year in at least 2 subjects ) but what we're doing doesn't seem to be having the effect we want it to.

Grateful for any ideas and experiences - good or bad!

TIA

DD's school gives merits for various things like your praise points and there are badges and certificates, given out in a special assembly that parents are invited to, when they get to certain numbers. DD and some of her friends are very motivated by this - the boys in general are not bothered.
There are small rewards - pencils, rulers etc for 100% attendance and another system of certificates and badges for academic effort and achievement. No big prizes though.
I think the system they have is quite good for motivating Yr 7 and 8, but by Yr9 only the minority of swotty geeks like DD and her friends care much about it.

Is the monetary value thing Vivo Miles?
We use it at our school and I'm not a big fan tbh.

I think "praise and recognition" (ie certificates and the like) are more important than monetary "rewards": you can't possibly compete with what they can buy with their pocket money anyway.

One thing that can work in terms of 'rewards' is privileges - ie prefects being allowed to jump the dinner queue, or leading students being allowed to use the computers in the library at lunchtimes ....

You have to accept that whatever your system is, it probably won't inspire and motivate everyone. BUT I think it's most important to reward/praise the silent majority, who by and large do what they're supposed to most of the time; rather than the vocal minority, who behave once a flood and expect adulation and chocolates for doing so!

Do PM me if you want to discuss further with specific details/examples.

This is interesting because the subject of rewards has come up a couple of time recently relating to whether it was a good idea to reward a child on report as an incentive to make them change their behaviour and how it backfired in one case where the pupil 'doctored' the report.

It will be interesting to see what Indigobell has to say as I think she disagrees with rewards in general.

At my DDs school they have a merit system and you can reach bronze, silver, gold etc and get certificates, I think there are prizes at the end of the year for the best. I think they become disillusioned when some girls race far ahead and they realise they aren't in the running any more.

I always think they prefer a sticker (but that's perhaps a girl thing). Sweets go down well too (I'm talking about one sweet for helping, good answer etc.) but probably frowned on now for health reasons. My DD doesn't like the sweets one teacher gives, but she gives them to her friends which makes her popular.

Ages I ago I studied psychology, I don't know if anyone can back me up on this but apparently rewards and punishments work when they are very small (a sticker, a sweet etc), this is because although you do alter your behaviour to get the reward or to avoid the punishment you won't admit to yourself that you are doing so for such a small result, so convince yourself that you wanted to change anyway, so you get a change in attitude resulting in better behaviour in the future - cognitive dissonance I seem to recall.

I think the problem is that people are different in what they perceive as a small or large reward...

Hope that made some sense, not sure it answered the OP!

i agree that it works better in y7 and y8

We have a rewards system to get the small items like pencil etc too, and also a pass for the pupil and a friend to go to the front of the lunch queue, or use the computers.

We also have a subject specific postcard home (ie compasses and set square on the maths one) - weirdly the naughtier less well behaved really likes getting these.

There is a reward systam at my dc's secondary school where you get x amount of merits and earn a week of early lunches, then a cinema voucher, then a meal for two. I found Ds's early lunch tickets and asked him why he hadn't used them. I like going to lunch with my friends, he said, what use are those...

And agree re demotivating to the other students.

I would stick to certificates only.

This is interesting, thanks. Our problem seems to be that the kids don't necessarily put much value on the postcards/certificates thing. They used t get posted directly home, but now (cost of stamps) get given to the chidlren by their form tutor. I think they liked it better when things were sent straight home.

Interesting that we have similar systems to other schools. Perhaps we need to work more on the culture rather than changing the rewards!

My two have pocket money but we give it to them every half term. They get full pocket money if they work hard at school. They are both very different ability wise, so payment on results wouldn't be fair. So, we expect their reports to give 1 (excellent) or 2 (good) for effort, behaviour, homework and coursework for them to get the amount in full. They always have. However, they know if they ever get 3's(some concern) or 4's (serious concern) at all then payment will be scaled back accordingly.

Sorry, meant to add, at school house points are good with badges for major achievements house points wise. Lots of genuine praise is good too. So many hard working but average students are forgotton as they are not A even though they may work harder and A get lots of natural praise every time they get a test result.

Postcards go down well, but not sure if they are an incentive, but they are appreciated.

However, completely different coming in the post to being given out at school!

I think rewards systems such as Vivo Miles are excellent, as a mother I've seen a positive reaction from my kids and they take it ways more serious than the stickers. I think Vivo Miles is brilliant, is a perfect solution for modern parents, is really appealing for kids and teenagers and they really feel motivated and committed to improve certain behaviors and achieve goals. I like Vivo Miles feature that allows me as a parent to monitor my kids activity and also set goals at home. I thoroughly recommend it www.vivomiles.com

Sandrurris - do you work for that company?

I've never actually heard of it, and having looked at it, I have to say I think it is thoroughly wrong.

Since I started this thread, I've been involved in a couple of interesting discussions about the subject - most interestingly today on a teaching course I've been doing. The guy leading the course talked about the difference between external and internal motivators, and I can see that actually what my school needs to develop is the culture of internal motivators (ie I want to do well because I want to achieve as highly as I can, I'm going to do my homework because I think that getting a B for my coursework is a worthwhile achievement etc)

I genuinely believe that rewarding a child with an ipod or whatever is dreadful. It completely undermines the idea that hard work is a worthwhile endeavour in itself.

Thanks for sharing the link though, Sandrurris - eye opening stuff.

Also - for the kids to be able to get these rewards, surely the school has to pay quite a bit to join the scheme, or how would the rewards be paid for?

Hi Eviltwins

My opinion certainly differs from yours. And no, I do not work for that company. I am a mother of two and this system has been implemented in the school my kids attend and I am just talking from my experience.

As a mother I always cast a cautious and critical eye on anything related to the education of my little ones. With Vivo to be honest I had my reservations at the beginning but after have tried it and see how my kids like it and how positive their reaction has been it made me give it a chance.

Let's be honest, as modern parents in a modern society we end up compensating our kids with material things or in certain way we try to motivate them with holidays, pocket money, games, bikes, etc. And sometimes we buy them things for nothing, just because they ask for them.

The positive thing I find in Vivo is they have to earn it, they have to do hard work to get the things they want and in certain way it helps to introduce teens into certain concepts they will apply in their adult lives. I think its a solution according to the modern times, I find utterly hard motivating my kids just telling them that obtaining and A or a B is good for them and they are too young to understand how important will be in their futures the fact of have had good education. So a system like Vivo is a good help in my opinion.

Sandrurris - if you don't work for them you've certainly swallowed their entire pr dialogue to regurgitate on here
Agree with eviltwins - need to create a culture of internal motivators - psychological theory (and my experience as a teacher and parent agrees) tells us that it is the only true motivator.
Buying your kids things for no reason isn't a problem - but it is an issue if your children will only work and/or behave if promised material rewards, particularly as you refer to them as little ones so am assuming they are still primary age.